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Another Fort Worth Shelter Facing Overcrowding

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – Another North Texas animal shelter is facing an overcrowding crisis and is asking for public’s help.

The Humane Society of North Texas in Fort Worth has taken in an almost unprecedented number of animals this week.

“We did over 200 animals through the front door on Friday alone, over 650 for the entire week,” said Shelly Meeks, assistant director at the Humane Society of North Texas in Fort Worth.

Among the animals they took in this week were 52 dogs from a puppy mill in East Texas.

“We got a frantic call from a small East Texas shelter that a puppy mill breeder had passed away and her husband called them and said, ‘I can’t take care of these animals,’” Meeks said.

The shelter couldn’t handle that number of animals and called the Humane Society of North Texas who picked up the animals and brought them to their Fort Worth shelter.

Though the shelter had room at the time, they are quickly getting filled up as the summer season is usually when they get the highest number of drop-offs, but even this year, there are more than usual.

“We haven’t seen numbers like this in a long time. It’s kind of scary and I hope it’s not a continuing trend,” Meeks said.

The rescued dogs are shi tzus, poodles and various mixes. The dogs friendly, but many of them are more mature in age and are not socialized due to a life of non-stop breeding in cages.

Now the Humane Society, which is funded solely by tax-deductible donations, is slashing adoption prices, scrambling to clean the dogs up and find them new homes.

Pets younger than a year can be adopted for $50. Pets older than a year are adopted for $25. Each animal adopted is spayed or neutered, vaccinated to date, dewormed and microchipped. Owners get 30 days of free pet health insurance and one free visit to a participating veterinarian.